Feature Writers

Oilers News

BLOG: Oil Kings can advance to semis

by
Marc Ciampa
/ Edmonton Oilers

The Edmonton Oil Kings can advance to Friday's Memorial Cup Semifinal with a win tonight over the QMJHL's Val d'Or Foreurs.

"Both teams are sitting at 1-1 and there's a lot to play for here tonight, to go to the semi-final and to get home ice for the semi-final is a key part," said Oil Kings head coach Derek Laxdal following Tuesday's optional morning skate.

Val d'Or won their tournament opener 1-0 over London last Friday on the strength of 51 saves from goaltender Antoine Bibeau. Last night, they lost 6-3 to Guelph but the Oil Kings head coach felt they played better overall and he expects their best game tonight.

"We've got to play our style. Val d'Or's a big, strong team. They've got some offence there. Even though they lost last night, I thought they played a much better team game than they did against London so obviously they're finding their stride a little bit. For us, we've got to stick to our structure and play our game."

Laxdal hoped to see from his squad a similar effort and performance from Sunday's 5-2 win over the London Knights.

"There were times in the game where London had a push but I thought we recovered well. We didn't have a lot of that D-zone time where we got hemmed in. The one time we did, we took a penalty and they scored in the six-on-five situation. Tonight, we've got to find that level we did when we played against London."